Word study

Intercede

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: intercede, interceded, intercedes, interceding. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “intercede” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פָּלַל pâlalintervene, interposetranslated this way 5 times of its 84 uses · Strong’s H6419Verb  ·  Translated: pray 31, prayed 25, praying 10, prays 5

    Numbers 21:7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD so He will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses interceded for the people.

    1 Samuel 2:25 If a man sins against another man, God can intercede for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to their father, since the LORD intended to put them to death.

    Full study and all 82 verses →
  • חָלָה châlâhbe weak, sicktranslated this way 2 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H2470Verb  ·  Translated: ill 8, sick 8, grievous 5, sought 4

    1 Kings 13:6 Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before.

    Full study and all 73 verses →
  • פָּגַע pâgameet, encounter, reachtranslated this way 2 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s H6293Verb  ·  Translated: strike 5, struck 4, reached 3, met 2

    Isaiah 59:16 He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.

    Jeremiah 15:11 The LORD said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress.

    Full study and all 43 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐντυγχάνω entynchánōI meet, encounter, call upon, make a petitiontranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1793Verb  ·  Translated: petitioned 1, intercedes 1, interceding 1, appealed 1

    Romans 8:27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

    Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • ὑπερεντυγχάνω hyperentynchánōI intercede fortranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5241Verb  ·  Translated: intercedes 1

    Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.